Clapham

Clapham sits at the foot of Ingleborough, and it feels a world away from the busier market towns that ring the Yorkshire Dales. There's no high street of gift shops here, no coach parties working through it in an afternoon - just a beck running through the middle of the village, stone cottages, and paths that lead straight out onto the fell. Where much of the surrounding region trades on wide-open dale scenery, Clapham's appeal is more contained and more curious: it's a village built around a cave.

That cave is Ingleborough Cave, reached along a wooded path from the village, and it's the reason many visitors come here in the first place. Guided tours take you underground into chambers of stalactites and stalagmites, a proper contrast to the fresh air and open hillside above. It gives Clapham a focal point that a lot of Dales villages simply don't have, and it means a day here can be as much about what's beneath your feet as what's on the horizon.

For somewhere to stay, Clapham keeps things small and personal. Moor View and the New Inn Hotel are the village's own options, both offering the sort of straightforward, comfortable base that suits walkers coming off Ingleborough or Three Peaks routes, or anyone wanting a quiet few nights without straying far from the fells.

Walking is really the main occupation once you're here. The village sits within reach of Ingleborough itself, one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, and the paths around Clapham take in waterfalls, woodland, and limestone scenery that's distinctive even by Dales standards. It's a place that rewards boots rather than a car.

The dining list attached to Clapham is far longer and more varied than you'd expect from a village this size, ranging from Sinabro and MAAI by Nikita to Crispin at Studio Voltaire, Katsuro, Trinity and Curry Leaf, alongside pubs and everyday spots. It reflects how Clapham works as a base: you might spend your day on the fell or underground in the cave, then have a genuinely wide choice of places to eat come evening, something that sets it apart from villages this size elsewhere in the Dales.